Is Heli Skiing Worth the $$$?

This is me living out my biggest dream in the entire world right now. We are spending the next 72 hours heli skiing at the place that's been voted world's best heli ski operators three years in a row. And to make the trip even more special, I have the best crew in the world joining me. We're going to be spending the next three nights at this incredible mountain lodge. And each day, the helicopter will fly us high up into the mountains to spend the day skiing and snowboarding. As much fresh powder as possible. So join us as I put a check by the number one thing on my bucket list and see if heli skiing is worth the hype and the expensive price tag.

We got our first crew member.

Yeah.

Here we go.

Well, the best week of our life is off to a very early start. Rick, have you been looking forward to this? I'm very much looking forward to it. I can't believe the day is finally here.

It's exciting, but it's also very early right now.

All right, quick stop in the capital one lounge to start the trip.

I'm a poor substitute for Cara's food reviews then. This is a great lunch. I'm very much enjoying it. Bricks forced and traveling with Cara. Our flight started boarding 10 minutes ago. Crew member number two.

Still eating some food from the lounge.

All right, our first flight of the day is three hours to Vancouver.

We are officially in Canada. We are about to meet up with our fourth crew member.

Yo, what's up, bro? How you doing, man? I've been waiting my whole life.

From here, we fly an hour and a half further north.

Thanks for choosing your Canada express for your travels today. We hope you had a pleasant plane and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

All right, we are about to pick up our fifth and final crew member.

Almost there.

Can anybody else feel their heart beating? I saw the mountains from the plane and I just, like, have butterflies.

And this is where things start to get really fun.

We're about to jump on a bus.

That'S going to take us to the helipad. And then from there, we fly into the lodge that we're going to be.

Staying at for the next four nights.

All right, I'm riding the co pilot.

Seat to the lodge.

I feel like I'm missing out up here. I'm sad I'm not with the rest of the group.

I know.

It's what I feel all day, man.

The next three days.

You usually fly that board fast.

Yeah.

That was sporty.

Yeah.

Wow.

This is.

Home sweet home. I could not be more excited right now. We just heard from the guys downstairs that they have gotten 100cm of fresh snow in the last week, which I was kind of worried about because it's completely dry outside, but apparently all the snow is up there. It does feel weird being in a hotel room without Kara, but I'll give you a quick room tour since she's not here. Bedroom with a super comfy bed, chair, open closet thingy, big spacious bathroom, and hopefully this is going to be me for the next three days.

The rest of the lodge was super fancy for being in such a remote location. There was a bar open kitchen, big table where we'd have family dinners at night, a multipurpose room which we mainly use for stretch class in the morning. And outside they had a fire pit and a massive hot tub tub.

They called it stretch class, but it felt like a 30 minute workout.

Although we all had to sign this very expensive waiver online, we have to actually physically sign it in the presence of a witness. Quite a bit of liability here. You understand what's going on there?

I can't actually read it yet because I have my. I'm just signing because everybody else is signing it.

It seems fine.

It's f. Purely excitement.

Up until now, I wasn't really nervous, but that is the most serious that a wave reform has ever been taken. I'm telling myself that's just what they always do in Canada, but I don't know if that's true.

There are very few times in my life where I've woken up and thought today could be the best day of my life.

But today is one of those days.

Woo.

I think the last time I had my name in a locker was when.

I was playing high school football.

This is all so fun. Everything about it, every step of the way.

How you feeling? Feeling good. There's blue sky above and that makes me feel very good. This makes me feel a little nervous. Pure stoke, baby.

Before getting started, we had to go through safety training. And if we would have known how serious things would get, we probably would have listened a lot more intently. I'm not saying we didn't listen, but, you know. So first we learned how to use our avalanche beacons to figure out where someone was buried under the snow. That little black thing that you see laying in the parking lot, that's a beacon and we're using ours to find it. Then we learned how to use the probe to find their bodies and the proper way to dig them out.

Myself, I was caught in an avalanche about three years ago, and I determined that the avalanche was slowing down and I punched to the surface.

Next, we learned how to use our inflatable backpacks, which I'll explain later. And finally, what to do if the helicopter crashed.

Full size seat belt cutter. Those would be used if helicopter's on its side and you take each other's seatbelts off.

And now that we were aware of all the different ways we could die.

You're gonna have a good time to reflect while you're under the snow.

It was time to go have some fun.

Between the waivers, the avalanche training, this is all starting to feel very real.

Feel better after all that?

No, way worse. It's gonna be an adventure.

We're doing it. Woo hoo. Oh my God. I'm ready.

Come on, let's go.

Hey, I just want to remind everybody that you can only do something for the first time once, and this is the first time, so enjoy it. Let's go, baby, let's go.

I can't stop smiling. My face is stuck like this.

We found the stove. Oh my God. Three feet of untouched snow. It is so king.

Hello, Kara from the future here coming to you from what feels like the polar opposite of heli skiing in Canada. We've spent the last two weeks deep in the Sahara desert of Morocco. It has been warm and sunshiny, but also absolutely nuts. We cannot wait to share these next few videos with you. It's going to be awesome. But first, let me say a big thank you to better help for making adventures like these possible. So everyone knows that taking care of your physical health is essential. I think Nate's really good at doing that, or maybe he's doing the opposite. I actually don't know at this point. But yeah, we talk about our physical health all the time. But it took me a really long time. Like I should take my sunglasses off to realize that taking care of my mental health is just as crucial, if not more. I've found that when I'm not in a good place, mentally or emotionally, that just bleeds into every other aspect of my life. No matter how much of a healthy life I feel like I'm living or how physically healthy I am, your mental health is kind of everything, or at least minus. But for some reason, working on myself emotionally takes the back burner. Like, I find it intimidating and I find that I don't have time for it and it's just kind of not a priority. So if you're listening to this talking to you, take care of yourself, okay? Do it you won't regret it.

It.

That rooster is going crazy right now. Therapy is something I never thought I needed. It's something I never thought I would do. But ever since I have, I've never looked back. Something about having this outside perspective on just the smallest of things. Like, of course I talk about big things too, but things that don't come up with my circle of people come up with my therapist. And I don't realize some of the weight that I've been carrying. It's kind of hard to explain. What I'm trying to say is therapy is so such an awesome tool that I think everyone should utilize. And BetterHelp cannot make it any easier because it's 100 online therapy, so there's no commute, no waiting rooms, and it's way more flexible. Plus you can get a therapist on their platform that actually matches your specific needs and preferences based on a little quiz you take about yourself. So, like I said, take care of yourself. And I have good news. If you click our link in the description below or go to betterhelp.com.

You'Ll get 10% off your first month of therapy with better help. Okay, back to the cold.

Sorry to disappoint anyone who was expecting.

Us to jump out of the helicopter with our skis on, but I think that only happens in Red Bull movies. For us, the drop off was a lot safer. The process looked something like this. Once the helicopter landed at the drop off point, we all had to stay low because as you can see, the helicopter really sinks into the snow, making the blades much closer to our heads. The last person out shuts the door. Then two people work together to get our Abby bags out of the back of the helicopter. One person holds the door while the other person throws the bags into a pile. Meanwhile, our guide is on the other side unloading skis. Then once everything is unloaded, one person's in charge of laying on the bags to make sure that they don't blow away. Then someone else gives the pilot the thumbs up that it's safe to take off. It's actually a decent amount of work to get in a run because after the helicopter takes off, it's time to put on all of our gear. There's three different buckles to clip on the Abby pack, and then you have to make sure to pull your trigger out of your shoulder strap. This is the handle you pull to inflate the airbag in your backpack. The idea being if you're caught in an avalanche, you'd pull this and it would Help keep you on the surface and keep the avalanche from burying. The final step is clipping into your skis, which is easier said than done in knee deep snow.

What happened, Dusty? There's a tree. There's the top of a tree in there. And then you're finally ready to go.

Let's go.

This all felt like a lot the first few times, but by the end we had it down to a science. We could be unloaded and ready to.

Go in just a few minutes.

Let's go.

Oh my God.

Look where we are right now. Unbelievable. We don't have to hike one step. Here we are like the helicopter didn't go down to land. We were just on it. This is like having a snowboard on each foot. I've never skied skis that are close to this wide.

Let's go.

Oh my God.

Oh, baby. Let's go.

I'm the king of the world.

Look at these snow monsters.

Oh, I'm loving this terrain.

I like that drop. That's a background right there.

That's so fun.

Yeah. Oh, yes.

Yeah.

Yes.

So we have a regular performer here right below. Means I can trigger this in avalanche regularly.

All right, so we got some heavy danger over here. We're following the guide this way.

Perfect. Every time.

Woo.

Straight down the nose. Oh, this is just wide open.

Yeah.

Oh, Dusty.

Short sail. That came out of nowhere.

Okay.

He just came off that and his skis went straight into the end.

You had a decent amount of air.

Yeah, yeah. I went way higher than I thought I was going to. Yeah.

What are you doing? I'm just doing cartwheels.

Hey, just a heads up. Dusty lost his skis.

Yeah, he's all good. Just gonna take a little time to get him on. Looks like hard work, Dusty. I'm tired for you.

From the helicopter, you really start to gain an appreciation for just how big this place is. They have exclusive access to over 800,000 acres of heli ski. To put that in perspective, the biggest ski resort in North America is Whistler Blackcomb, which is about 8,000 acres. So this ski area is a hundred times bigger and than the biggest ski resort in North America.

I can already tell you that's never going to get old. Look at this. We're about to ski into a sea of clouds. Not a bad place for a pee. All right, skiing down to lunch. Oh, heck yeah.

Woo.

Yeah.

Send it Y.

This is such a fun little section.

That was a causeway.

Have y' all had as good a day as we have? Yeah, boys. All right, time for Lunch on top of the mountain. Doesn't get better than this. No waste of time. Not even going inside. Thank you. Appreciate it. Oh, life is good. No bench, views, sandwich, tea, soup.

All right, we're about to head up to the high alpine for the first time. So this will be the longest run of the day. Way up above tree line, up to the top of the mountains, and then just cruise down. Also, it is crazy how close it is. This helicopter lands, it goes between these.

Two poles and us.

I'm not sure why.

We are on top of a mountain. This is sick.

Wow, look at these views. Little steep drop to start us off, boys running a shred.

That was way bigger than I thought it was.

I didn't know that drop was there.

This is it, the run we came for. This is the one Max flew halfway around the world for and what we paid so much money for. This is the feeling we were chasing, that you could only get on extremely rare occasion.

This is what dreams are made of.

If you're not a skier. Let me try to explain it to you. This is probably going to sound super cheesy, and it won't do it justice.

But here it goes.

When your skis sink into the powder, there's no friction, and it feels like you're floating because there's no solid bottom. Yet somehow, if you push down on your skis and keep your tips up, it bounces you back up to the surface of the snow and lets you make your turn. And then, once you found your rhythm, you can basically jump from side to side like a bunny. It's smooth, it's playful, and the stakes are low because if you crash, the snow's soft, so it just encourages you to go that extra bit faster or hit that extra jump. To me, at this point in my life, this is the absolute best feeling in the world.

Oh, my goodness. This is a dream.

That was different.

I don't think it gets better than that. Your van is just white real.

Look at where we just came from. Annual trip forever.

Oh, yes.

This is a freaking. That was deep and beautiful. I said at the beginning of the day that this had potential to be best day ever. Officially, Best day ever, ever.

We can sit in the hot tub the next two days.

I'm confused.

Whoa, she's steep.

Pushing you along. Let's go. Amen. My God.

And just as we were heading back up to do another one of the best runs of our life. Well, I wasn't able to capture it well from the helicopter, but if we pause the video and you look closely. That dark dot right there. That's one of the guys from the other group in an avalanche.

Hey, guys. So did you guys see the other.

Yeah.

Okay, so what we're going to do is we're just going to get the group all together here. We'll do a debrief. Everybody's fine.

Okay, good.

Nobody was caught in it. Seriously. There was everybody. Want everybody deployed?

Glad everybody's okay.

I didn't want to stick the camera in Mark's face after what could have been a traumatic experience, but he was in good spirits, and I was able to ask him about it the next morning. So this is what it feels like.

To get stuck in an avalanche from someone who's actually been in one. Do you mind to share your experience yesterday? Like, what it felt like being caught in it.

Yeah.

This is Mark, by the way.

So, yeah, yesterday, going down after the guide, out of the corner of my eye, saw kind of a fissure crack. Thought my he's kind of always there, but wasn't sure. And then when I came back around, I saw it growing, and then the whole surface just started breaking up into these, like, stepping stones that were, like, 3ft tall, like 2 by 2 or so.

And just.

This is, like, not normal.

I've seen.

I'm out. So I freaked out, pulled my avalanche pack, and rode it down. Ended up being not that bad of a slide. Didn't go that far, but definitely got the heart going. And then I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm okay. But then I all of a sudden thought about my daughter, and I'm like, oh, my God. Like, who stuck behind me because I didn't know how far I went. So then I looked around, and thankfully, they were at the top.

Forward, rider safe.

Yeah, right on.

So after the avalanche, we relocated to a lower part of the mountains that the guides felt like would be less likely to slide, and we finish out the day there.

We've confirmed that everybody's good, and we're back at it.

There's just so much fresh, untouched powder all around us.

Oh, these skis are so much more playful.

This is the best.

Happy birthday, Nate.

Oh, you good? Oh, no.

Ow.

Yeah, buddy.

Oh.

Let's go.

Last run of the day. That was it. Heading back to the lodge.

I think we still got two more days. That's one of the best times of my life.

What do you have going on on this plate?

Dusty.

Stomach was a little unsettled, so I figured I'd really mix it up. All right, this is the opera setup. For the afternoon, we've got spring rolls, seaweed salad, and gummy worms. As sad as I was to come off the mountain, it's not so bad being back here. Sit outside and enjoy the view.

We're reviewing footage from the day. We're rewatching Dusty's crash.

Oh, Dusty.

We're gonna start giving out superlatives on this trip. And Dusty gets the best crash so far. I'm guessing you don't have to just watching. Go, go. Who's watching him go? Straight into the snowbank. At first they got those teeth break off, man.

A nice little kale salad with an orange vinegar. I'm gonna serve you.

The kale's been massaged in lemon, so.

It'S not super bitter.

The crunch of the sweet potato is just like, nice and sweet and tangy. And then it's finished off with vinaigrette.

A little bit of cheese, just a little bit of creaminess.

We have a portobello mushroom seared with some maple and coffee rub. In front of you guys is home style pistachio ice cream. And then a poached pear with a little caramel and a Philo base. Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you.

Good morning. We are starting day two with some poached eggs and avocado toast.

Yeah, settling in just fine here.

All right, we just had our morning.

Briefing, and it sounds like we're going to be spending a lot more time.

In the trees today because avalanche danger is considerable. Not only did we see one yesterday and someone in our group got caught in one, but apparently there was a.

Big one down south that three people died in.

The risk is real. We're probably not going to be going up as high today or skiing the big open faces because that's where the avalanches are most likely to happen.

Day two, feeling pretty good.

Yay. Let's do it. Absolutely stoked, right? Yeah. One, two, three.

Be safe, be safe. I think we all just need to get one run under our belt to get the jitters out. Been a lot happened over the last 24 hours.

I just finished saying that we were gonna stay off the big open faces in the trees today, and here's where we are. We've got our fearless leader down here checking the snow conditions, seeing if it's safe. There's two sides to this story. Stoke and risk. They kind of need both. I grew up with a poster on my wall. Without risk, there can be no glory. And not that I'm chasing glory right now, but you do have a hell of a Lot more fun when there's a bit of risk involved. Max and I are very similar people. Whatever I'm thinking in my head, he tends to to say out loud, all right, I'll send it, send it, send it.

Due to the avalanche danger, we were pretty limited on the terrain that we could ski. On day two, limited terrain and warm temperatures made the skiing less than ideal. When the snow warms up, it gets super sticky and turns into a glue like texture.

The snow is just like glue on my skis right now.

One minute we were sliding down the hill and the next minute the snow is grabbing our skis and almost bringing us to a complete stop. Oh, it got sticky.

You just can't get any speed.

I know. On day three, the warm snow refroze and there was a two inch crest that made it almost impossible to turn.

Little crusty. By little, I mean a lot a lot crusty.

So day one skiing was by far the best. But our guys worked hard to put us on the best runs available and we still managed to squeeze in a few good runs here and there.

There.

So is heli skiing worth the hype and the expensive price tag? 100% worth the hype. The entire experience is a massive adrenaline rush. Between the helicopter rides and the unlimited untouched snow, it is a once in a lifetime experience. If you love skiing and snowboarding, is it worth the expensive price tag?

Maybe if we would have had amazing snow all three days, I could probably say a confident yes. But the experience is so dependent on the snow conditions, so it's a bit of a gamble because you're never going to be able to predict the weather.

Oh no.

I'm not having a good time.

With that said, I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. Getting to spend three days making lifelong memories with some of my best friends is something I will cherish forever. And these 72 hours will probably replay in my head as I'm laying on my deathbed. Especially the last few runs. It ended up being super fun and a bit ridiculous.

Since we knew it was almost over.

We were all just sending it.

What do you reckon? You do a team. The on the pants.

Feels a little cooler up here. All right, last run of the day. Let's make it count. Nathan. We'll send it. We'll send it.

Yeah.

Is that a little icy? All right. Ice bath, baby.

Beautiful. Way to go for it.

Oh, yeah. What a journey. Yes, bro. Yes, bro. What a trip. What a trip. What a trip.

Honestly, I don't know what's crazier is this whole experience or our wives letting us do this.

Matt, thanks for keeping us safe. Oh, yeah. Really appreciate it, man. So much fun, Ryan. Especially you, Rick.

Love you.

Thanks for teaching me how to ski. Love you, too, man.

Thanks for.

Can't believe I get to do this stuff with my brother. Was that a hug? That's a hug. Oh, yeah.

Wow.

You're so sweaty, Max. Love you, buddy. Love you, too, man. And I'm so, so happy I did this. Worth flying across the world.

Sam.